Good point. That being said, I haven't seen this much building in Oakland (except maybe on the eastside) all at once, probably ever. Much more used to lots of announcements and then nothing. Its a refreshing change.

Supersized Plans and Problems for this BART Adjacent Project
February 26, 2018

While plans for a 417-unit development to rise up to 8 stories in height on the vacant 3-acre Caltrans lot bounded by Kirkham, 7th, Union and 5th Streets, a block from the West Oakland BART station and across from The Crucible, were approved back in 2016, the ground was never broken.

And with Panoramic Interests now leading the charge, plans for over 1,000 units to rise up to 23 stories and 233 feet in height upon the 500 Kirkham Street site have been drawn and will be presented to Oakland’s Design Review Committee on Wednesday.

Designed by Lowney Architecture and dubbed “The Hub,” the new plans now include a total of 1,032 residential units, the vast majority of which (758) would be two-bedrooms averaging 514 square feet apiece, along with one (1) studio unit, eight-seven (87) one-bedrooms, one hundred (100) three-bedrooms, sixty-four (64) four-bedrooms and twenty-two (22) ten-bedroom “rooming house” units.

The development includes over 44,000 square feet of ground floor retail, restaurant and “flex space” fronting 7th and 5th Streets as well as along two new pedestrian alleys between the development’s three buildings which would be built in two phases, with the 23-story tower at 7th and Union following on the heels of the eight (8) and nine (9) story mid-rise buildings to the west . . . .

And while Oakland’s Planning Department has been working with the project team to reduce the proposed development’s “monotonous and bulky massing,” department staff “remains concerned that the buildings are not sited to provide an inviting site plan with a rich public-private interface, and that the buildings are not yet elegant and attractive.”

department staff “remains concerned that the buildings are not sited to provide an inviting site plan with a rich public-private interface, and that the buildings are not yet elegant and attractive.”

Are these people serious? Just rode past this area today on my way home from the airport. It’s an underdeveloped ghetto area now and nearly any new development will an improvement. Under the state’s manidate we should see more of these development. Look to see NIMBYs try to use local planning/design agencies to delay them in hopes of killing them.

Are these people serious? Just rode past this area today on my way home from the airport. It’s an underdeveloped ghetto area now and nearly any new development will an improvement. Under the state’s manidate we should see more of these development. Look to see NIMBYs try to use local planning/design agencies to delay them in hopes of killing them.

The design team could certainly try a little harder. Asking for improvements does not necessarily mean an intention of delaying it for malicious reason. I like how they're setting some sort of design bar. It'll be much appreciated in the future, when buildings start to come to fruition.

The design team could certainly try a little harder. Asking for improvements does not necessarily mean an intention of delaying it for malicious reason. I like how they're setting some sort of design bar. It'll be much appreciated in the future, when buildings start to come to fruition.

I do agree with you. I just found the wording so absurd considering the location. Let’s hope it gets built!

So happy to see Oakland finally having its own thread. I work Downtown in an Urban Architecture and Planning firm and am SO excited about all of the development that's happening in the city. Growing up just south of Oakland, it's been great seeing it change throughout the years.

I took some progress photos of some projects that are under construction during my lunch today:

1314 Franklin:

601 12th St.

1640 Broadway

1721 Webster:

2630 Broadway:

2400 Valdez:

2315 Valdez:

Here is a key for the "Uptown" Broadway-Valdez Specific Plan from the Oakland Gov. Website:

There are a few more that started Construction up street on Broadway that I couldn't make it to. Will try to get some pics of it next week.

Nice contribution Rajaxson. Nice to see some more of whats happening near auto row. Also, for the decade long pit at 601 12th, its almost striking to see something finally substantial growing out of it!

Some more detailed renderings of 1750 Broadway, potentially in the race to break the skyline as Oakland's tallest. I feel a bit better about this one seeing these. If built, its design would compliment the tower at 1721 Webster currently in the preconstruction phase a few blocks away.

Another large housing project has been proposed in Oakland's Uptown district.

Architect KTGY filed a pre-application for a 267-unit apartment building on a parking lot at 60 Grand Ave., continuing a trend of underutilized lots being targeted for new density.

Developers and investors have flocked to the Grand Avenue section near Lake Merritt, which is also a few blocks from the 19th Street BART station. The 60 Grand Ave. project is on the same block as 2270 Broadway, an approved 230-foot tower with 223 apartments developed by Hines and Invesco. Building permits for that project have been filed and are under review.

A block east from 60 Grand Ave. is Essex Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: ESS)'s 100 Grand Ave., Oakland's last completed tower, which opened in 2008. Two blocks from that is 180 Grand Ave., which has been sold twice since 2014.

The 60 Grand Ave. project would likely be a tower, given the parking lot is only 9,256 square feet, according to PropertyShark. The pre-application didn't specify how tall the project would be.

80 Grand-Broadway LLC bought the eight-story, 46,200-square-foot office building at 80 Grand Ave. and adjacent parking lot for $5.2 million from the Hahn family trust, according to property reports.

Douglas Chin and Glen Lau, two surgeons who operate medical offices at 80 Grand Ave., are listed as owners of the building. Chin couldn't immediately be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone in Chin's office said the building was recently sold to Seagate Properties, which is based in San Rafael.

Seagate couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Five percent of the units will be designated for very low income tenants making up to 50 percent of the area median income.

That would satisfy the city's affordable housing requirement. The developer could also potentially use the state's housing density program to increase the tower's height.

KTGY declined to comment. It wasn't clear who the developer of the project is. A request for comment to the developer through KTGY wasn't immediately returned.

After finishing two projects and adding three more to its pipeline, Signature Development remains hungry to pursue more projects in Oakland's Uptown and Auto Row districts.

The Oakland developer recently filed a preliminary application with the city to build 100,000 square feet of office and retail at 465 25th St.

The new site sits in the middle of a block of mostly low-rise, brick warehouses within a few blocks of the developer's offices and five other Signature Development projects that are either complete or close to starting construction.

Signature Development is looking at building 100,000 square feet of office and retail at 465 25th St. in Oakland.
Enlarge
Signature Development is looking at building 100,000 square feet of office and retail at 465 25th St. in Oakland.
Michael Ghielmetti, head of Signature, has a long track record in Oakland and has been developing there long before it became a darling of office and housing developers and investors. Representatives from Signature Development did not respond to requests for comments for this article.

"We have a good understanding of the marketplace," Ghielmetti told the Business Times last summer when the company announced plans for a West Elm hotel, retail and residential project at 2401 Broadway. Injecting multiple uses — housing, office, retail and hotel — into a neighborhood generates the type of pedestrian activity a vibrant district needs, he said.

Signature has been particularly active in Uptown and in and around the Broadway-Valdez Plan area, where the city put forth development guidelines to attract significant retail and housing development to an area once dominated by car dealerships and service shops.

So far, close to 3,000 homes, 363,000 square feet of retail and 99,000 square feet of office in about 20 developments are in the pipeline or already completed. Meanwhile, a few blocks south of the Broadway Valdez Corridor, TMG Partners has proposed building a 760,000-square-foot office tower at the corner of West Grand and Telegraph avenues.

The new development site is also just a few blocks north of where Signature has developed Broadway Grand, a condo project at the intersection of Broadway and Grand Avenue, in 2008 and the Hive, a mixed-use development with retail, restaurants, apartments, office and a central courtyard that opened in 2014.

The Hive is home to various businesses and spaces that attract significant foot traffic such as restaurants including Calavera, Drake's Dealership and Firebrand Artisan Breads as well as Impact Hub Oakland, a co-working and community events space. The office component houses tenants such as Flynn Architecture, Inner City Advisors, Balfour Beatty Construction and the headquarters of Numi Tea.

The company's three other developments in the area, which have all locked in city approvals, include:

BART Says No to Station at Proposed Site for A's New Ballpark
By Mark Matthews
Published at 4:31 PM PST on Feb 19, 2018 | Updated at 8:04 PM PST on Feb 19, 2018

It looks like another swing and a miss for the Oakland A's in their quest for a new ballpark near downtown.

BART has said it cannot build a station at the Howard Terminal site the A's have eyed for their new stadium. BART officials said a station at the site, just north of Jack London Square, would be too disruptive to its service and would take too long to design and build.

That could be a huge stumbling block in the team's new ballpark plans . . . .